Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio.
Thomas MalthusRead
In a state therefore of great equality and virtue, where pure and simple manners prevailed, the increase of the human species would evidently be much greater than any increase that has been hitherto known.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Malthus suggests that in an ideal society with equality and virtue, human population growth would be significantly healthier and more sustainable.
In this quote, Thomas Malthus reflects on the potential for humanity to thrive in a society marked by equality and virtue. He emphasizes that if society were to prioritize simple and pure manners, the natural increase in human population would be far greater than what has historically been observed. This notion reflects Malthus's belief in the impact of societal conditions on human growth and the overall human condition.
Themes
EqualityVirtuePopulationSocietyHuman Growth
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of equality in social progress.
More from Thomas Malthus
All quotes →The prodigious waste of human life occasioned by this perpetual struggle for room and food, was more than supplied by the mighty power of population, acting, in some degree, unshackled, from the constant habit of emigration.
Thomas MalthusRead
The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.
Thomas MalthusRead
The rich, by unfair combinations, contribute frequently to prolong a season of distress among the poor.
Thomas MalthusRead
I think it will be found that experience, _x000D_ the true source and foundation of all knowledge, _x000D_ invariably confirms its truth.
Thomas MalthusRead
Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. A slight acquaintance with numbers will shew the immensity of the first power in comparison of the second.
Thomas MalthusRead
Similar quotes
National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
In Buddhist teaching, ignorance is considered the fundamental cause of violence - ignorance... about the separation of self and other... about the consequences of our actions.
Sharon SalzbergRead
It was all I had, all I've ever had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive. Memory.
Abraham VergheseRead
When a man was hurt you took him to the maester, but what could you do when your maester was hurt?
George R. R. MartinRead
In tragedy great men are more truly great than in history. We see them only in the crises which unfold them.
Napoleon BonaparteRead
To get a man soundly saved it is not enough to put on him a pair of new breeches, to give him regular work, or even to give him a University education. These things are all outside a man, and if the inside remains unchanged you have wasted your labor. You must in some way or other graft upon the man's nature a new nature, which has in it the element of the Divine.
William BoothRead